Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Scratching & Declawing: Options & Alternatives

Some cats use
their claws destructively indoors by clawing the furniture or carpet. For those
cats, there are solutions to help curtail this habit.

Scratching is a
completely natural and normal behavior for your cat. It helps sharpen their claws, acts as a scent and visual marker,
and aids in stretching. Scratching is
important to cats and feels good, however it can be destructive to a household
and hard to control. By providing your cat with alternatives to your furniture,
you can help discourage destructive scratching.

The first step
is to provide some acceptable scratching material for your cat. Cat trees are
ideal because not only can your cat scratch it, but it also gives them
something to climb and perch on. Cats love high places from which to view their
surroundings. Make sure the cat tree is
stable enough for your cat to run, jump, and climb on and has suitable material
for their claws to dig into.

There are also
horizontal posts available that can be placed on the ground for scratching, as
well as vertical posts that hang from the door. These come in many different
materials such as carpet, sisal rope, and corrugated cardboard. You may need to
experiment to see which kind your cat likes best but a variety of options is
ideal to prevent boredom.

If your cat has
already started scratching furniture and carpet in your house, you may want to
choose a cat tree or scratching post that is covered in a different material to
avoid confusion. Sisal rope is usually very popular with cats. You will want to
have scratching options placed throughout your home and especially near or in
front of spots your cat has already decided to claw at. You can slowly move the tree or post a little
bit each day to where you would eventually like it to be located.

To help entice your cat to use their new post,
try rubbing some catnip on it. When you see them scratching a post or playing
on their tree, make sure to reward the good behavior with treats. This will
help encourage appropriate scratching. It is usually not helpful to force a
cat’s paws onto a tree or scratching post.

There are a
variety of ways to help make areas you do not want your cat to scratch less
appealing. While you are training your
cat to use their new scratching materials you can place foil, plastic sheeting,
or double sided tape on or around furniture.
Cats dislike sticky surfaces so double sided tape is an excellent
deterrent. If you do not want to place double sided tape
directly on your furniture, you can place carpet runners with the pointy side
facing up in front of anything you want to mark as off limits. Use a water
bottle to squirt your cat if you catch them scratching somewhere off limits.
While these measures do not look attractive, it is hopefully temporary as your
cat establishes appropriate clawing behavior. Patience and persistence are
required in order to train your cat to create new scratching patterns.

There are other
options besides scratching posts and cat trees. First, there is a non-surgical alternative using Soft Paws. These are hollow “false nails” that fit like a cup
over the claw and are glued in place. They stay on the nail for 4 to 6 weeks, and
fall off as the nail grows. Replacement for most cat owners is a simple
procedure. You can purchase a set of Soft Paws over the counter. We can glue on
the first set of Soft Paws while you watch so you can see how we do it. After
that we can continue to apply future sets of Soft Paws, or you can do it
yourself at home.

Another option
is a surgical procedure referred to simply as declawing. This is the
traditional method that has been performed to prevent cats from using claws. Declawing is a drastic and permanent solution
when all other options have been exhausted. During the procedure the surgeon amputates
the claw and last bone in each toe, from which the nail actually grows. It is
essential that this bone be removed with the claw. This ensures that all the
nail-producing cells are removed, thereby preventing re-growth of the nail.
Either a small dissolvable stitch or tissue adhesive is used to close the skin
together at the end of each toe when the procedure is completed.

This procedure
is performed under general anesthesia and multiple forms of pain medications
(local, injectable, oral, and patches) are often used to reduce post operative
pain. The apparent degree of pain experienced by a cat varies from case to
case. Your cat will stay at the hospital 1 to 2 nights with its feet bandaged
and pain level monitored.

Once your cat goes it home it will likely need
to continue on some form of pain medication as it is not uncommon for there to
be discomfort. Your cat may experience pain for several days or even a week or
more post operatively. During this time they will need to be confined in order
to prevent trauma to the feet.

Cats rely on
their claws for defense and should remain indoors after the surgery. There are
reports that some cats show an increase incidence of biting following the
surgery (presumably due to lack of claws for defense) but this is not a
consistent finding. Any of our veterinarians will be happy to answer questions
you may have about this procedure.